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Article ARRIVALS, SURVIVALS, AND REVIVALS. ← Page 5 of 7 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Arrivals, Survivals, And Revivals.
may I say humble and halting 1—posture , lumbering ungracefully through the portals ul that dilapidated and , proh pudor ! still surviving excrescence , Temple Bar . I was about to preface the cripple ' s title with the adjective " old , " but it has not even that respectable title to our regard . There is a survival for you 1 Pace Sir George Bowyer—but never mind , bis Avell-known principles rogarclnig our ancient mystery afford a sufficient guarantee against his ever reading these lines—this bastard copy of a
spurious order of architecture has not a single claim to our reverence . It recalls the bad old days Avhen principles the most diametrically opposed to those of the Masonic body ruled rampant ; Avhen men Avere persecuted for conscience sake ; Avhen no man dared to speak the thing he Avould ; Avhen Ketch ' s halter and quartering knife never lacked employment , ancl that , not on the nocks and limbs of thieves ancl murderers , but
on the throbbing frames of patriots and statesmen . The bad old times , Avhen French gold supplied the luxuries of au English monarch's seraglio ; . vlien an enemy ' s cannon roared defiance in the port of London ; Avhen men , high in rank and in the councils of their sovereign , yearned for a reiwal of the tyrannies of the Star Chamber and High Commission ; ancl Avhen a Recorder of the ronoivned city , " the nursing mother of freedom , " in tbe year that saw the moribund nicumbrance reared , dared to assert . that it
Avould never be good time in England until the Inquisition was introduced !* But to turn to the arrival that didn't arrive . Alfred De Musset has put it upon record that " the first duty of Avine is to be red . " I will anticipate the obvious pun of some Avitty critic that that is also the first obligation of a Magazine article . NOAV I conceh'e that the first duty of an obelisk is to appear in a A ertical position , and so I hereby enter my protest against the manner of the debut of the Needle ' s canvas and scantlingrepresentative in Lord Mayor ' s Show , albeit the humiliating posture it ivas made to
assume was of course Avholly due to the monstrous survival I have been denouncing . But just fancy how I could haA r e button-holed you , gentle reader , while I poured forth a AAdiole Hood of lore upon Barneses and Thothmes , and Scarabei , and Osiris , and Isis , ancl hieroglyphic ivriters ancl records in stone generally , had the obelisk associated AVWI the name of the " serpent of Old _ N"ilo" arrived in time . Why , I have no doubt that I could Inove proved to demonstration from the indentations upon that piece of syanite , that Moses Avas a Mason and Past Master of a Lodge meeting at Thebesancl lease don't retort
; p that all this illustration can be derived as well from photographs or from our learned and worshipful brother ' s interesting brochure upon this interesting subject . Photographs won't do for me . There is a turn of the hand in the real thing incapable of reproduction by the graver of the Avoodcutter , discernible only by the esoteric , a secret to the exoteric
A Masons work is recognised only by a Mason , though here , at ab events , in this splendid presentation is a work trul y Masonic , if only in the display of the munificent and enlightened liberality of our worthy and Avorshipful brother , Dr . Erasmus Wilson . Let us hope that ere long the adventurous monolith may afford us all the opportunity Ave desire of a closer investigation , when it displaces its rather shabby simulacrum on St . Stephen ' s Green . But is this looked for arrival wholly Avithout association of a survival ? Alas no ! There survive widows and children of six gallant British seamenAvhoin a service Avhich all Avill
, , recognise as truly Masonic , died at the post of duty , of that highest duty of a sailor , to succour and to save his messmate . Let the records of eveyy Lodge midev the banner of that constitution , of Avhich the donor is so illustrious a member , bear some remembrance of the pathetic legacy the brave souls have left us . To shed your blood in doing your duty is a tradition familiar to every Master Mason . What did these dead men do less ? Let their memories be a survival , and let the care of and love for their sorroAving survivors remain an imperishable
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Arrivals, Survivals, And Revivals.
may I say humble and halting 1—posture , lumbering ungracefully through the portals ul that dilapidated and , proh pudor ! still surviving excrescence , Temple Bar . I was about to preface the cripple ' s title with the adjective " old , " but it has not even that respectable title to our regard . There is a survival for you 1 Pace Sir George Bowyer—but never mind , bis Avell-known principles rogarclnig our ancient mystery afford a sufficient guarantee against his ever reading these lines—this bastard copy of a
spurious order of architecture has not a single claim to our reverence . It recalls the bad old days Avhen principles the most diametrically opposed to those of the Masonic body ruled rampant ; Avhen men Avere persecuted for conscience sake ; Avhen no man dared to speak the thing he Avould ; Avhen Ketch ' s halter and quartering knife never lacked employment , ancl that , not on the nocks and limbs of thieves ancl murderers , but
on the throbbing frames of patriots and statesmen . The bad old times , Avhen French gold supplied the luxuries of au English monarch's seraglio ; . vlien an enemy ' s cannon roared defiance in the port of London ; Avhen men , high in rank and in the councils of their sovereign , yearned for a reiwal of the tyrannies of the Star Chamber and High Commission ; ancl Avhen a Recorder of the ronoivned city , " the nursing mother of freedom , " in tbe year that saw the moribund nicumbrance reared , dared to assert . that it
Avould never be good time in England until the Inquisition was introduced !* But to turn to the arrival that didn't arrive . Alfred De Musset has put it upon record that " the first duty of Avine is to be red . " I will anticipate the obvious pun of some Avitty critic that that is also the first obligation of a Magazine article . NOAV I conceh'e that the first duty of an obelisk is to appear in a A ertical position , and so I hereby enter my protest against the manner of the debut of the Needle ' s canvas and scantlingrepresentative in Lord Mayor ' s Show , albeit the humiliating posture it ivas made to
assume was of course Avholly due to the monstrous survival I have been denouncing . But just fancy how I could haA r e button-holed you , gentle reader , while I poured forth a AAdiole Hood of lore upon Barneses and Thothmes , and Scarabei , and Osiris , and Isis , ancl hieroglyphic ivriters ancl records in stone generally , had the obelisk associated AVWI the name of the " serpent of Old _ N"ilo" arrived in time . Why , I have no doubt that I could Inove proved to demonstration from the indentations upon that piece of syanite , that Moses Avas a Mason and Past Master of a Lodge meeting at Thebesancl lease don't retort
; p that all this illustration can be derived as well from photographs or from our learned and worshipful brother ' s interesting brochure upon this interesting subject . Photographs won't do for me . There is a turn of the hand in the real thing incapable of reproduction by the graver of the Avoodcutter , discernible only by the esoteric , a secret to the exoteric
A Masons work is recognised only by a Mason , though here , at ab events , in this splendid presentation is a work trul y Masonic , if only in the display of the munificent and enlightened liberality of our worthy and Avorshipful brother , Dr . Erasmus Wilson . Let us hope that ere long the adventurous monolith may afford us all the opportunity Ave desire of a closer investigation , when it displaces its rather shabby simulacrum on St . Stephen ' s Green . But is this looked for arrival wholly Avithout association of a survival ? Alas no ! There survive widows and children of six gallant British seamenAvhoin a service Avhich all Avill
, , recognise as truly Masonic , died at the post of duty , of that highest duty of a sailor , to succour and to save his messmate . Let the records of eveyy Lodge midev the banner of that constitution , of Avhich the donor is so illustrious a member , bear some remembrance of the pathetic legacy the brave souls have left us . To shed your blood in doing your duty is a tradition familiar to every Master Mason . What did these dead men do less ? Let their memories be a survival , and let the care of and love for their sorroAving survivors remain an imperishable